Following a hard-fought 4-3 win against Salisbury School on Wednesday, May 15, the varsity boys tennis team ends the season on a high note, finishing 6-9 on the season.
Led by Head Coach Andy Krugman and junior Captain Will Maclean, the team has been through some highs and lows and has been ramping up their gameplay, sometimes even playing four games a week.
The team had some big wins throughout the season, with an important win against Kent with a score of 4-3. That was a meaningful victory, as they had lost to Kent last year 5-2. “One goal for the end of the season is to beat the teams we lost to last year, so this was a huge success,” Maclean said. Some other standout wins include dominant 6-1 wins over Wooster and Frederick Gunn.
Another thing the boys do effectively is work well together as a team. “There’s a team aspect of the sport,” Maclean said. “While tennis is often a stereotypical individual sport, the team does a good job of making it about the whole team rather than just, like, a single outcome of one match.”
Something else that the team does well is keeping morale up, even after a tough loss. “For the most part, they’ve done a good job at trying to compete without getting down or going negative,” Coach Krugman said. “In sports, it is hard to stay positive all the time because if things aren’t going your way, it’s hard not to get down on yourself.”
One standout player is Maclean. “He’s been just a really positive and super responsible captain,” Coach Krugman said. Both Coach Krugman and Maclean highlighted sophomore no. 1 singles player Ciaran Concepcion and sophomore no. 2 singles player Pratt Blair; Concepcion and Blair also play no. 1 doubles together.
“They stand out simply because they are the top two guys on the ladder,” Coach Krugman said. “They’ve been asked to do a lot at a young age, and they’ve handled it really well.” Maclean agreed, noting that the team generally goes up against older and more experienced players. One of Blair’s greatest successes was when he won his match against Westminster in a tiebreaker with a score of 10-9. Both Coach Krugman and Maclean also highlighted sophomore Saahit Gadipatti’s tremendous improvement throughout the season.
More recently, the team has taken some tough losses to schools such as Avon Old Farms, where they lost 5-2 despite a strong singles performance from Blair. During a match against Westminster, while the team lost 6-1, Blair had another standout performance after winning his singles match 10-8 in a tiebreaker.
Throughout the season, the team has focused on improving their doubles matches over singles in addition to fundamental skills like serving, passing shots, footwork, and overhead shots. Coach Krugman explained how doubles are more complex than singles and therefore have more room for both error and growth. “In doubles, there are so many aspects to the game,” he said. “The whole can be better than the sum of the parts. And when you have a team, there’s positive energy to work on positioning and—to a degree—strategy,” he said.
The team’s season has been marked by perseverance, and we know they’ll continue to achieve great things next season!
